Heroes & Villains 2014/15

Pichichi

Ronaldo won the Pichichi award for the second year in a row, his hat-trick on the last day of the season also helping him to the European Golden Boot this year. The Real Madrid striker’s 48 goals in the league was the second highest ever, two behind the record set by Leo Messi three seasons ago. Messi himself came a close second though, scoring 17 more goals than the season before, and his team mate Neymar came third. Together with Luis Suárez, Barcelona’s front three clocked up a world best of 122 goals in all club competitions as the Catalans completed the triple for the second time in their history. Meanwhile the “Zarra” award for the top scoring Spanish player in the league goes to Aduríz, whose goals helped Athletic reach the Spanish cup final and qualify for next season’s Europa League.

A total of 1,009 goals were scored in the league this season, 35 less than the year before. For the record, Real Madrid scored 118 of those and Barcelona 110, Sevilla a distant third with 71. First division teams scored another 155 in Europe and 171 in the cup, making 1,335 in all. The highest scoring weekend was the final week 38, with 42 goals, and the lowest was week 15, with 16. See the weekly reports below for more details.

Zamora

Claudio Bravo won the Zamora prize this year in his first season at Barcelona, the Chilean international setting a new record for his club with 23 clean sheets in a title winning year. Valencia’s Diego Alves came second, and Atlético’s Moyà was third despite losing his place later in the season to Oblak.
Iker Casillas missed out once again on an award which he surprisingly has never won, and he will be sorely missed next year after deciding to make a move to Porto.

In the end Málaga’s Kameni was the only keeper who played every minute of every match this season. Some 44 keepers were used in total, although for once no outfield players were needed to replace keepers who had to leave the field of play with all substitutions made.

Villain

Gabi is the winner of this season’s “Villains” award, the Atlético midfielder picking up 19 yellow cards, two reds and four days’ suspensions in all domestic club competitions. Simeone’s captain indeed!

Three players were sent off in the last weekend of last season, Sergio Alvarez (Celta), Weligton (Málaga) and Dani Parejo (Valencia), and they are expected to miss the opening game of next year together with Mathieu (Barcelona), Mendujanin (Deportivo), Lombán (Elche), Recio (Málaga), Mikel González (Real Sociedad) and Feghouli and Gayà (both Valencia), who all completed the five yellow card cycle.

There were a total of 2,466 yellow cards and 140 reds in the league and cup this year, compared to 2,278 and 160 the season before. On a club basis, the top villains were Atlético, Almería and Celta, who clocked up 207, 191 and 190 points respectively. The lowest totals went to Barcelona, Real Sociedad and Real Madrid with 96, 117 and 125 points.

White Stick Award

Velasco Carballo takes our White Stick award this season, the experienced international referee clocking up 179 yellow cards and ten reds in the 24 games at which he officiated, an average of 7.5 and 0.4 cards respectively per game. Overall, referees produced a sum total of 2,515 yellow cards and 163 reds in league and cup competitions this season, a small increase compared to the previous year.

We were very sad to hear that two of our old favourites, the brothers Teixeira Vitienes, will be leaving us this year, the siblings being relegated to the second division but consequently forced to retire due to the lower age limit at that level. Both José Antonio and Fernando have won our “White Stick” award in the past, and La Liga will be a duller place without them. In their place two new rookies have been promoted, De Burgos Bengoetxea and Sánchez Martínez. As always, we wish them the best of luck!